I hope you are the one to answer this for me...

I remodeled my bathroom, taking out a shower/tub combo and had a shower put in to take its place. I had a contract who has his own plumber do the work. First I live in a condo, ground floor two units above me, built approximate 30 years ago. The building is well built and sound.

When the plumber installed the drain from the shower to the main drain pipe for the building, he used PVC pipe and now I can hear all water coming from above with vengeance. You hear the total duration of a shower, which did not happen before. I was in another room when it first happened, and it sounded like a huge pipe was spewing water in the bathroom. Scared the heck out of me. I understand there will be some sounds in the wall, which there has always been if everything is quiet. This sound is absolutely horrible... awakening me out of a sound sleep. I questioned this and was told this was all done by CODE (Florida). I cannot possibly live with this... what should he have used? If he has to replace with a cast iron pipe should I be the one who pays for all the additional work... It will be tearing out the shower floor,
The concrete etc... What am I supposed to do. This only happened last week and I have not paid the final portion of the bill. Being a woman, sometimes people think they can push their way through a situation etc. I will look for your answer...

I hope you are the one to answer this for me.....

I remodeled my bathroom, taking out a shower/tub combo and had a shower put in to take its place. I had a contract who has his own plumber do the work. First I live in a condo, ground floor two units above me, built approximate 30 years ago. The building is well built and sound.

When the plumber installed the drain from the shower to the main drain pipe for the building, he used PVC pipe and now I can hear all water coming from above with vengeance. You hear the total duration of a shower, which did not happen before. I was in another room when it first happened, and it sounded like a huge pipe was spewing water in the bathroom. Scared the heck out of me. I understand there will be some sounds in the wall, which there has always been if everything is quiet. This sound is absolutely horrible...awakening me out of a sound sleep. I questioned this and was told this was all done by CODE (Florida). I cannot possibly live with this...what should he have used? If he has to replace with a cast iron pipe should I be the one who pays for all the additional work.... It will be tearing out the shower floor,
the concrete etc.... What am I supposed to do. This only happened last week and I have not paid the final portion of the bill. Being a woman, sometimes people think they can push their way thru a situation etc. I will look for your answer...
Cast iron would be considerably quieter than PVC -- But unless you specifically stated that he use cast iron, it is my opinion that your plumber conformed to code in using PVC.

Also, you need to keep in mind that the trap, trap arm and drain would have been increased in size when you changed over from a tub/shower to a shower only, which means a great deal more water is going down the drain much faster.

Check your local phone book to see if there is a Hamilton Jet office in your area, if there is, they sell a product designed to muffle the sound of boat engines that is applied to the engine cowling.

It is a foil backed vinyl material that I have been using for years to quiet noisy drain pipes.

Thanks for your reply... Where would this product be applied? Would then require taking out the new shower floorto install it?

Thanks for your reply...Where would this product be applied? Would then require taking out the new shower floorto install it?

It comes in sheets and is double backed butyl rubber with an aluminum outer covering.

You just cut it to fit a section of pipe, peel off the backer and wrap it around the pipe.

I think it's called Dexdamp.

As for taking out the shower floor, is there any reason you can't access the piping from the ceiling of the floor below?

Also, 9 out of 10 times the noise is much louder in vertical sections of pipe than it is in horizontal sections.

If you decide to go this route and expose the piping from the ceiling below the shower, I would like you to post pic's of the new piping, just to make sure you're getting what you're paying for.